The final film in Melusines ‘Bob Chinn Peekarama triple feature set’ California Gigolo is about as straightforward as it comes. John Holmes plays ‘John’ (a stretch…I know.) a Gigolo based in California (I know, I was shocked too.) and the film basically just…follows him around as he sees to his various clients and seeks new work. We also follow a guy named Gomez on and off throughout the film as he too gets into Gigoloing briefly. Its essentially something in the way of a ‘Day in the life’ or ‘Weekend in the life’ of the exotic and erotic lifestyle John leads.

Its fine enough, the script once again is paper thin, but at least it isnt trying to convince the audience of its storytelling prowess…It knows what it is, and the audience know within the first 5 minutes or so that they’re going to get exactly what it says on the tin. the pacings pretty on the level, it slows a little bit in the middle…but thats kind of to be expected.

The characters are all pretty lightly developed, but again, thats fine with films like these because its really just set dressing the audience and giving them a ‘type’ to work with.

The sex scenes themselves are consistent, and pretty well handled. With a good range of shot types and plenty of close up shots blended in. Theres a bit of an emphasis on Oral with this one. But I would say it was a ‘specialist’ film, just that…of all the sex acts featured in the movie, Oral is the most prominent.

The direction and cine are solid enough, though it is maybe a little basic on the lighting and experimentation front, its all fairly flat lit lighting, the sets are all pretty standard apartment or office spaces and the scenes are a little *too* clean structured. It maybe would have been nice to have seen them push the boat out a little more with this one.

Still! the performers all seem to be having a fun time on set, the soundtracks upbeat and fun enough and as a bit of escapism, its not half bad. I dont think this is an ‘essential’ watch, but I would say it’s in the upper half of Chinns filmography quality wise.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/california-gigolo/